Missouri Attorney General Jay Ashcroft has certified four proposed constitutional amendments and one statutory change to appear on the statewide ballot in November.
A constitutional amendment to legalize sports wagering will be Amendment 2 on the Nov. 5 ballot, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office said Tuesday, after finding that backers had enough signatures in six congressional districts to qualify.
A proposed statutory change for a higher minimum wage will be on the ballot as Proposition A. It is the third time a measure to increase the minimum wage has been before voters. It has been successful both times previously and this time it is paired with a requirement that all employers provide paid time off to their workers at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked.
Amendment 3, an initiative petition to enshrine the right to abortion up until the point of fetal viability, also secured a place on the general election ballot. If the measure receives a majority of votes, Missouri could become the first state to overturn an abortion ban through a citizen-led measure.
Amendment 6 makes changes to the Missouri constitution to preserve funding of law enforcement personnel for the “Administration of Justice.” We’ll have to do more digging to report more on this amendment.
Amendment 7 has been highly publicized as banning an illegal’s right to vote, but it does much more. State law already only allows citizens to vote but this amendment pulls that law up to constitutional level. In addition, amendment 7 makes ranked voting, a voting process that’s growing in popularity across the country. It also requires the candidate with the most votes — not necessarily a majority vote — in a primary to advance as the sole candidate from a party to the general election.
A sixth initiative, to allow a new casino to be licensed on the Osage River near the Lake of the Ozarks, did not make the ballot. The casino, intended to compete directly with a planned Osage Nation casino, was 2,031 valid signatures short in the 2nd Congressional District.
Each initiative needed to hit a minimum number of signatures in six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts to make the ballot. Each measure placed on the ballot will require a majority of votes to pass.
Sports Betting
The sports wagering initiative was launched late last year after major sports teams and casino companies were frustrated again in passing legislation. The public-facing part of the campaign has been taken by the major pro sports teams, but the money – $6.3 million for the signature campaign – has been provided by the two largest online sports wagering platforms, FanDuel and DraftKings.
Each of the state’s six major league teams would be able to offer fans a branded wagering platform and receive exclusive advertising rights in and near their stadiums. The online wagering platforms could be licensed to operate independent of the teams and casinos, which would also receive the ability to apply for a license.
The money won by the gaming industry would be taxed at 10% of the net after promotions and other costs. In Kansas, which legalized sports wagering in 2022, a similar taxing structure brought in $9.8 million for $172 million wagered during June.
The ballot language anticipates Missouri revenue would be up to $28.9 million annually that would be spent on education programs.
Sports wagering has been legalized in 38 states and the District of Columbia since the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down federal laws banning sports betting nationally.
Minimum Wage
The minimum wage and paid leave proposal builds on successful efforts in 2006 and 2018 to boost the pay of Missouri’s lowest-wage workers.
If approved, the minimum wage would go to $13.75 an hour on Jan. 1 and go up again to $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2026. After that, it would again be indexed for inflation.
With the required paid leave requirement, backers say the proposal will make families more secure financially and healthier because workers will be able to stay home if they are sick or a loved one needs care.
“Allowing workers to earn paid sick days and increasing the minimum wage is a huge step in the right direction,” Lora Gulley, director of community mobilization and advocacy at Generate Health in St Louis, said in the statement.
It cost backers $855,000 to put Proposition A on the ballot and the campaign fund had $1 million on hand on June 30. More than $1 million of the money raised has been donated by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington D.C.-based liberal dark money organization.
Legalizing Abortion
Abortion is illegal in Missouri, with limited exceptions only in cases of medical emergencies. There are no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest.
If the amendment receives more than 50% of votes in approval, the measure would legalize abortion up until the point of fetal viability, an undefined period of time generally seen as the point in which the fetus could survive outside the womb on its own, generally around 24 weeks, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Such an amendment would return Missouri to the standard of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which also legalized abortion up to the point of fetal viability. Missouri’s amendment also includes exceptions after viability “to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”
